Immigration and vaccinations

Dear Dr. Roach: I am in my mid-50s and in good health. I rarely get sick with colds or flu. I have been vaccinated with all the common vaccinations for our childhood. With all the immigrants coming into our country, I am wondering if any have been given childhood vaccinations in their countries. Do our childhood vaccinations still protect us? Should seniors be re-vaccinated or is that harmful at our age? — C.S.

Legal immigrants into the U.S. are required to have all vaccinations as recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.

Undocumented immigrants are more difficult to study, but what data there are suggest that vaccination rates are roughly the same in the countries of origin of many undocumented immigrants as in the United States. In fact, several Central American countries have higher vaccination rates than the U.S. currently.

Analysis of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have suggested that most of these outbreaks have come from visitors (Americans or foreign visitors) from countries with high levels of ongoing transmission who spread the disease to others during their infectious period. Because there are some communities where there are enough unvaccinated people due to medical reasons, personal choice or ineffective vaccination to allow spread of the disease, there continues to be ongoing infection in the U.S. This is especially true of measles.

People born before 1957 are generally considered to be immune to measles, and the vast majority have had chickenpox. People born between 1963 and 1967 (that might be you) are at risk for having had ineffective measles vaccination, and those at risk should check their immunization status and may need revaccination, especially those in an area near an outbreak.